Black Lives Matter protester charges NYPD smashed him with bicycle

Walter (Hawk) Newsome has filed a lawsuit against the NYPD, claiming police hit him with a bicycle during a Black Lives Matter protest.

A Black Lives Matter activist is planning a $5 million lawsuit, charging city bicycle cops gave him a two-wheeled trouncing during a wrongful arrest three months ago.

A video of the confrontation shows five cops descending on sign-carrying protester Walter (Hawk) Newsome — with one landing two roundhouse punches to his head and the others wrestling him to the street during a protest march at Broadway and W. 61st St.

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Two cops were caught exchanging an apparent high-five shortly after the officers shifted into high gear against Newsome, who recounted taking a knee to the head from another cop.

“I’m screaming, and they’re celebrating,” the 41-year-old Newsome told the Daily News. “It felt like 50 cops were on top of me. At one point, I was laying there with my arms in front of me — and they were still on top of me, pulling my shoulder back.They threw a bike down on top of me.”

Newsome — who filed a previous suit against the NYPD last year after his arrest at a Washington Square Park rally — said he suffered a torn rotator cuff in the March 28 incident while protesting against the shooting of unarmed black man Stephon Clark by cops in Sacramento.

Walter (Hawk) Newsome, president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, is seeking $5 million from the city, alleging he was beaten during a protest in March. (James Keivom / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

The NYPD “illegally and without a proper warrant or cause, did … falsely arrest and imprison (Newsome),” the notice of claim read. “(He) was grabbed and had his arms twisted, kicked, pushed, slammed to the ground, pushed into and hit with a bicycle … (and) falsely imprisoned.”

The plaintiff claims he was held for 22 hours before the police finally charged him with obstructing government administration.

A spokesman for the city Law Department declined comment on the court filing.

Walter Newsome says cops beat him for no reason. (Jefferson Siegel / New York Daily News)

Newsome, carrying a sign reading “Blue Klux Klan,” was suddenly wrestled to the ground without warning in the video clip. He said the source of the conflict was a police officer who used a bike to repeatedly bump him during the march.

“When I told him to stop pushing me, that’s when I was arrested,” said Newsome. “They have absolute power. They can arrest us whenever they want.”

Newsome faced up to a year on Rikers Island after his previous arrest in February 2017. Manhattan prosecutors later dismissed all the charges against Newsome, who filed a lawsuit over that incident. That case is still pending.

The demonstrator said the arrests will not silence him.

“If they want us to stop,” he said, “then they should stop killing unarmed black people.”